From:        Bonnie Zimmerman <bzimmerm@mail.sdsu.edu>
To:          "IMA faculty":;
Cc:          jjulius@mail.sdsu.edu, mshojai@mail.sdsu.edu, sbaird@mail.sdsu.edu,
             bzimmerm@mail.sdsu.edu, laumakis@sciences.sdsu.edu,
             jonrizzo@mail.sdsu.edu
Subject:     Update
Date:        Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:39:42 PDT
Instructional Materials Accessibility Group:

It has been quite a long time since I've been in touch with you, and 
here we are, just about to start a new academic year.  And it will 
not be an easy one, with budget reductions and furloughs affecting 
our workload.  I have been giving a lot of thought to what we can 
expect faculty--including you--to take on this coming year, given 
these conditions.  As important as accessibility is, I do not believe 
we can act as if it is business as usual.

For that reason, the steering committee has regretfully agreed to 
suspend specific mileposts for the coming academic year.  We are not 
going to set new goals, but will communicate to faculty the resources 
that are currently available to them.  These include the materials on 
access.sdsu.edu and the services of Jon Rizzo, whose primary duty is 
to support faculty on accessible instructional materials.  In the 
next few days I will be drafting an open letter to faculty that 
includes this information and asks for their continued attention to 
making their instructional materials accessible to all learners.

We will also give full support to any of you who would like to work 
with your department and/or college this year to increase their 
awareness of accessibility issues.  Let us know how we can help, and 
we will sit down with you at any time (except our furlough days, of 
course!) to work out a plan of action.

SDSU continues to take accessibility very seriously, but we also 
recognize the increased workload many faculty are taking on and the 
reduction in work time that all of us face due to furloughs.  We hope 
you will agree that this is a realistic, if sobering, assessment of 
what we can do during these difficult times.

Thank you for your good work and your understanding.

Bonnie

Bonnie Zimmerman
Associate Vice President
for Faculty Affairs